I dunno... I've had cell phones since having one was a
very big status symbol, and I've been on all of the major carriers except T-Mobile at one point or another. I've been with Verizon for the past eight years for voice, and the past three years for data (EVDO). I have been completely satisfied with every aspect of their service.
In fact, I re-upped for another two years last week and bought the Voyager, which I posted about
here. Very nice little piece of electronics, in my opinion; but I keep hearing from people (especially younger ones) about how horrible Verizon's phones are. I dunno: Every one I've had -- even the cheap one they gave me for free when I accidentally tossed one in the dumpster with the remains of a Burger King lunch -- has worked just fine.
I got that freebie by calling up Verizon and starting the call by saying, "Hi, this is Rich, and I'm a moron." After a long pause (during which I suppose she was unsuccessfully looking through the script for the proper response to a customer's calling
himself a moron), the CSA gently asked, "Um, I don't think you're a moron. Why do you say that?" I then explained what I had done, and the CSA put me on hold to "talk to her supervisor" (read: laugh her butt off).
A minute or so later, she came back on and told me that because I was a long-time customer, they were going to replace my phone for free. The next day, a new phone arrived via Fedex. Just like that. No renewing my contract (I was only four months into it), no "free after rebate," none of that nonsense. And I had no insurance on the phone I tossed in the dumpster, mind you. I used the free replacement phone until I got the Voyager last week. It worked great. Nothing fancy; it was just a phone. But it worked just fine, and it was free.
Of course, I really couldn't care less about certain features, so maybe I'm a bad judge of phones. For example, I scratch my head when I hear about people buying ringtones. I just want my phone to sound like a phone, and I pick the most phone-sounding ringtone that's included. I see no need to entertain those around me every time my phone rings. If they want music, let 'em go out and pay for it. It's not my job to entertain the world.
I also don't generally send text messages, picture messages, video messages, or any other sort of messages that require my middle-aged eyes and knuckles to focus on those tiny screens and keyboards for any longer than is necessary. Although I must admit that I find Verizon's V-Cast videos entertaining while killing time, provided I have my bifocals handy. I normally would be twiddling my thumbs, anyway, so the Voyager gives them something to twiddle.
I do receive a lot of text messages, but they are mainly from machines. My servers text me when they require human intervention, when they notice something out of the ordinary, when they update themselves, when some critical service stops working (even if they successfully resuscitate it) or when they just get tired of talking to other machines all day and want some human interaction. Or something like that. They seem to get lonely between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m., because that's when they text me most often.
But I digress. The point is that I have always been satisfied with Verizon. I've found their coverage to be excellent, their phones to be, well, phones, and their customer service agents (at least, the few times I've called them) to be responsive, to have a good sense of humor, and to be kind enough to put me on hold while they laughed at me. I understand T-Mobile is also very good, but I have not tried them. The rest of the companies I've tried, I have not been happy with.
Best,
Rich
In January, Sprint announced a loss of 683,000 customers.
